


A rush of blood

by persephx



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Don't Have to Know Canon, F/M, Friends to Lovers, Harry is a Good Friend, Out of Character Draco Malfoy, Ron Weasley is a Good Friend, Surgeon Hermione, bc rowling didn't give my boy a redemtion arc, i will add more tags later probably, i'll change that summary eventually too because what a mess
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-16
Updated: 2020-04-19
Packaged: 2021-03-02 03:48:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,695
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23688691
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/persephx/pseuds/persephx
Summary: Hermione is a surgeon. She doesn't have a lot of time. She doesn't have many friends. That changes when she meets a certain blond man who will be in charge of turning her life around.
Relationships: Hermione Granger/Draco Malfoy
Comments: 3
Kudos: 16





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Is this me writing a het pairing? huh. weird. Anyways, here it is, I hope you enjoy it!

The day started slowly. In the morning, she went for a run, as she usually did; when she got home, she had a long, hot shower and then she’d taken the public transport to go to work. Obviously, public transportation was as horrible as it usually was, even though her day started two hours after rush hours. She was used to the humid air and the people who were noisy enough to look at others’ phone screens, so that didn’t feel like the beginning of a bad day. Which felt like the beginning of a bad day was the man with a bar through his stomach that she’d had to make the surgery on basically as soon as she’d gotten to the hospital. Then, the kid that had broken his third bone that year and that had bruises all over his chest – those cases were never easy. And so, her day had been as packed as it could have.

And then.

She’d had to deal with a guy who had called her ‘sweetheart’ with an American accent and who had acted _so entitled_ that she had been tempted to fit him into the operation room as an emergency surgery and then look if he had a brain. She’d just smiled tight-lipped at him. As soon as she’d left the room, she had rolled her eyes to Fred, the nurse that was nearest, and he had nodded. It seemed like he had, too, been a victim of the man’s antics.

By the time her shift had finally – _finally –_ ended, she’d been about to step into the elevator, almost on her way out of the hospital when she’d heard her name being called.

“Hermione! I need you to stay a couple of hours more, I’m sorry but there’s been a car accident with a bus involved and we don’t have enough people here.”

She nodded at the rushed words from McGonagall. She was tired and wanted to go home, but if the accident had been as bad as McGonagall’s tone and rushed words let on to believe, every little help would be needed.

In the end, she went home four hours after her shift had ended. The adrenaline of all the surgeries had worn off and she was almost asleep on her feet. That was, at least, until the doors of the elevator had opened to reveal the reception, where a man was yelling at Katie. He was tall, slim, and his face was redder than she would have imagined possible, which contrasted with his almost white hair. The other people at the reception were looking at him like they were scared, and Katie was trying to calm him, but he didn’t seem to be able to listen to her through his yells.

“Sir!” Hermione exclaimed, trying to get his attention.

She was never able to stay away from situations like these, where people thought the workers from the hospital – or any worker – were there to do whatever they wanted.

The man, of course, didn’t stop yelling, he didn’t seem to even notice her presence. Or the security guard’s. Hermione exchanged a look with Cedric, and he shook his head, telling her to maintain a distance. She ignored him.

Hermione grabbed his arm and twisted it behind his back. She had been taking self-defense classes, but she didn’t think she’d be able to do that if he hadn’t been so distracted. It made her feel great, nonetheless.

“Sir, you need to calm down,” she said, her voice straining when he tried to shake her off but maintaining her grip on his arm. The man seemed to calm down slowly.

“She won’t tell me where my friend is.” He was still glaring at Katie.

“She might not be able to,” Hermione answered, also looking at the receptionist. She was looking at them with the hospital’s phone in her hand. She had been the one to call Cedric, then. Hermione didn’t think it’d be necessary for him to intervene, not with how the man was seeming to calm down.

“He…” he choked. “He was in a car accident. I need to know if he’s alive.”

“There were no deaths in the accident.” Hermione loosened her grip on his arm and once he was free, he turned to look at her. Now that he was calmer, she could appreciate that he was handsome, if his face wasn’t still red, he’d seem regal, elfish… maybe even taken out of a fairytale – that’s when she realized she needed to sleep. “I can’t assure you that he hasn’t needed surgery, nor that it has gone well if he’s had it but taking it out on the hospital staff isn’t going to help you, sir.”

He looked at his shoes. He nodded. He looked like a chastised kid. She sighed. “What’s the name of your friend?”

“Hermione…” Katie started, but Hermione looked at her and she didn’t continue.

“Blaise. Zabini.”

Hermione walked to Katie’s side of the table and looked through the computer. This was a violation privacy, technically, so she hoped neither of these men decided to sue the hospital. There it was. He had needed a surgery and, well, apparently it had been her who had done it. She remembered it by the description, it had been one of the easier ones.

“He’s perfectly fine, sir,” she said, looking at the records. “He wasn’t in as bad of a condition as he could have been. You can come back tomorrow withing visiting hours.”

He breathed and seemed to let all of the fight go, it was as if it had been holding him together, because he deflated like a balloon.

“Thank you.”

She nodded. Then, she looked at Katie and Cedric. Cedric was not happy about her stunt, she could tell by the crease in his eyebrows, but she didn’t feel like she had enough energy to hear it.

Now that it seemed like everything was fine again all her exhaustion came back to her like a wave, so she staggered out from the hospital and to the bus stop. One of those days, she’d end up falling asleep somewhere on the way. She was happy to say it hadn’t happened yet.

She didn’t even turn on her lights when she got home, she face planted on her bed and was awake enough time to hear her cat meow at her, but nothing more.

She was used to not sleeping much, which meant that she wasn’t overly tired the next morning, even though she had slept less than six hours. She took the time before she had to get ready to go to the hospital to read, but she got so immersed in it that she didn’t realize the time to leave had come. That meant that, when she looked at the clock, her heart skipped a beat, she had to forgo the shower and dress quicker than she would have liked. She got to the tube only a few minutes after she would have on a normal day, and, thankfully, she got to the hospital only a few minutes late.

If it had been anyone else, nobody would have batted an eye, but Hermione wasn’t one to be late so, of course, she got teased by everyone that noticed.

“We were worried sick!” Fred paraphrased Jake Peralta, American accent and all.

She rolled her eyes at him and started to work.

After the day she’d had the day before, it was safe to say that it was a slow one. As slow as a day at the hospital could be. She’d walked past the ‘sweetheart’ guy door once only to see him harassing another of their nurses. They’d shared a look and Hermione couldn’t help but think that she hoped Nurse Bones would make the needles hurt. It wasn’t an ethical thought, but the man deserved it, she guessed.

The rest of the day continued being uneventful. By the time her shift ended, she went home, as tired as she usually was, read for a bit, and went to bed.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Short chapter again, sorry about that! They will get longer as the story progresses.

It had been a hard week. Too much work and a constant headache that kept her from sleeping, which only made it worse. It was finally Friday and she had the weekend free. The first free weekend of the months, and she was not going to let a headache ruin it.

She didn’t have plans to go out – she was a little too old for that. Some would say that she’d always been a little too old for anything people her age did. She’d never quite liked partying. She had, when the occasion had called for it. But it was never really something she felt comfortable doing.

Her concept of fun didn’t always include a book – something she knew a few people in her life believed. Most times, something fun involved Harry and Ron. And her plans for that weekend did. They hadn’t seen each other in a few weeks, life as an adult got in the way more than it did when you were a kid. Specially if you and your friends were in a boarding school and practically spend every moment of the school year together. She remembered the first year of university, away from her friends and the one place that felt more like home than her house really did.

It was a simple plan, Harry and Ron would go to her house on Saturday night, they’d have dinner – quiche, it had become kind of a tradition – and they’d spend the night wither watching films or playing board games. Nights like that were a way to remember hoe they spent their time while in Hogwarts, and it always made her go soft when she thought about them.

But first, she had to get through Friday.

She’d been on her break, looking for Fred to see if he had any idea where she’d left her earrings – he somehow always knew where she’d left the stuff he lost – when she someone got in her way. It had been a week, and she saw so many faces every day that she almost didn’t recognize it. When she finally remembered, she felt her lips tighten. It was the man that had been giving Katie hell a week before.

“Hello,” he said. His voice – when he was not shouting – was soft. If she was in one of those romance books that Molly liked so much, she’d compare it with velvet. Except she was not in a romance novel, and the last time she had seen this man, he’d been a jerk. Sure, he’d been worried about his friend, but that hadn’t been Katie’s fault.

“Do you need anything, sir?” she asked. She was aware that her voice didn’t make her sound welcoming, but she wasn’t really trying to be.

His face visible changed. His expression became harder. Good. She would not tolerate another stunt like the other time she’d seen him, but she was not going to try to be his friend either. If he hadn’t behaved as he had in the reception, she would treat him kindly, as she always did with people in the hospital.

“I just wanted to thank you.” Somehow his sobered expression made his accent sound even more posh. Which managed to irritate her even more. She wasn’t sure why exactly had made her get even more mad, but she was now. She didn’t know how to answer to him, so she just nodded once. “I apologized to the receptionist a few days ago,” he said just as she was about to turn away. “I acted like a git.”

She didn’t know if he was looking for someone to tell him that it was okay because he had been worried for his friend, but if he was, he certainly was not going to be her who said it. She wondered about Katie’s answer – she probably had a similar conversation with him if he’s saying he already apologized – she was nicer than her, so she’d probably felt different than what Hermione was feeling then.

“You did,” she answered.

She saw his lips tightened. So that hadn’t been the answer he’d been looking for. Good.

“Look―”

Before he could finish whatever he was going to say, a young man put an arm on his shoulders and interrupted him. He was tall, but shorter than the blond man. And he was carrying a pair of crutches. She didn’t have to think hard to remember who he was. B. Zabini, a patient of hers, a victim of the crash. “Draco, who are you talking to?”

The man – Draco – raised his eyebrows and, while he didn’t roll his eyes or showed it any other way, he appeared to be bothered.

“Hermione Granger,” he answered, surprising her. She didn’t remember giving him her name. Either he was enough of a stalker that he had found it somewhere or someone had told her. It was a safe bet to assume that it had been Katie, if he had talked with her. “She was your surgeon.” She didn’t think she had told him that either.

She wasn’t entirely comfortable with Katie just telling her name to people who had previously reacted like this man had, but she tried not to show it. She nodded and smiled at Zabini, who was smiling.

“I’m told you did a good job.”

She blinked slowly. How was she supposed to answer that, exactly? Was she… being doubted? She didn’t quite understand what he was saying.

“My family’s doctor went over your… work. My leg. He was impressed.”

Again, she was at a loss of words. It probably wouldn’t be the first time that other people had gone over her work with their doctors, she guessed. But the way he said it was just… wrong. She didn’t know if he was purposely being an asshole, but he was definitely being one. The perfect pair to the other jerk.

“If you’ll excuse me, gentlemen,” she said.

She turned and continued her search for Fred before either of them could say anything.

After she’d gotten home that night, her mind kept going back to what Zabini had said. She still wasn’t sure how she was supposed to feel. It hadn’t sounded purposely rude, but the tone and the way he’d just said it… it had _been_ rude, no matter how it’d been supposed to sound. Or maybe she’d interpreted it wrongly. Maybe she’d been so ruffled up after her brief talk with the other man – Draco – that her mind had just expected the worse.

She didn’t know, but she hated that she was still thinking about it.

Then, at 4pm on Saturday, the doorbell of her apartment rang and every thought regarding the hospital, its patients, and its jerk-non-patients banished from her mind. Harry and Ron were there.

She opened the door and smiled at her friends. Harry smiled back and Ron just went for a big hug. She hugged him back, tightly. It had been too long since they’d seen each other. When Ron let her go, she turned and hugged Harry.

“Hermione, I swear if I ever say that I don’t like your quiche, assume I’m being possessed,” Harry said an hour later, when they were in the table having dinner. Ron nodded, his mouth full, and she laughed. She wasn’t a great cook, not generally, but she did make a good quiche.

“Maybe it would be better if you ate it slowly enough to taste it,” she joked.

In reality, seeing Harry and Ron eat her food like that was a compliment. Specially because they were both better cooks than her – Ron wasn’t as good as Molly, of course, but he was good, and Harry’s food was always amazing, even when he had a thousand mistakes to point out.

They spent the night watching films and playing monopoly. They fell asleep at 4am and, when they woke up, they had breakfast together before they each went to their homes. When she was alone again, she took a moment to sit in the sofa and smile. She had good friends, even if she didn’t see them as often as she wished.

**Author's Note:**

> This chapter is really short, but I'm hoping the rest will be longer!


End file.
